Emanuel declines to fire back at Preckwinkle

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, seen here last week, declined today to fire back at comments Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made about crime and education in Chicago.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, seen here last week, declined today to fire back at comments Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made about crime and education in Chicago. (José M. Osorio)

John ByrneClout Street

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today declined to directly challenge Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's recent criticisms of his crime-fighting and public schools strategies, instead talking about the passion they share for education and safe streets.

Last week, Preckwinkle suggested Emanuel and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy are focused too much on making arrests as a way to deal with Chicago's entrenched violence, and not enough on making changes to a "miserable education system that has failed many of our children." Today marked Emanuel's first time taking reporters' questions since then.

"Look, I'm going to leave all of you, I'm going to leave the politics that I don't really care about that," Emanuel said when asked about Preckwinkle's Thursday statements.

"Toni and I have immense agreement that relates to what we're talking about today," said Emanuel, who was at Malcolm X College to announce more Chicago public high school students will be able to take college-level classes through City Colleges.

"My number one concern, my number one concerns, plural, top priorities, however you want to say it, is public education and public safety," Emanuel said.

"Which is why I fought, and I know that she agrees with it, to make sure the kids of the city of Chicago had a full school day and a full school year," he said.

Preckwinkle quickly backtracked Thursday, telling reporters after her comments at the Union League Club that "this was a critique of all of us. It wasn't aimed at the mayor."

But before that, she was asked during a question-and-answer session with the luncheon crowd what she would do to address violence. Preckwinkle said Emanuel and McCarthy were too focused on arrests.

"Clearly this mayor and this police chief have decided the way in which they are going to deal with the terrible violence that faces our community is just arrest everybody," she said.

She also said much of the blame for the violence lies with schools that have a high drop-out rate. "We have contented ourselves with a miserable education system that has failed many of our children," Preckwinkle said.